Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i SLR Review

The controls on the back of the camera are almost identical to those found on the Rebel XSi and Rebel XS. At the upper left is The MENU button which calls up many of the camera and setup menu selections. The DISP. button brings up the shooting information display (shown below) as well as controls the amount of exposure or shooting information displayed on the LCD in Live View, Movie, and Playback modes. All the way on the upper right, are the AE Lock/FE lock/Index/Reduce and the AF point select/Magnify buttons.

Moving to the right of the LCD you can see the AV/+- or Aperture/Exposure Compensation button. Directly below that is the Live View/Movie Record button, which also acts as the Print/Share function when connected to your PC or Pictbridge compatible printer.

Next we have the large, 4-way controller that lets you navigate menus, select the active AF point or select images during playback. Pressing the 4-way controller 'Up' changes the White Balance mode, 'Right' toggles the AF mode, 'Down' adjusts the Picture Style mode, and 'Left' changes the Drive mode (Burst, Self-timer, etc.)

At the bottom is the Playback and Delete buttons. You can also see the small LED 'Access lamp' to the right of the Delete button as well as the small built-in speaker located below the AE/AF lock and AF point selection buttons.

Here you can see the Shooting Settings Display. It turns the LCD into a data display much like the Monochrome LCDs found on higher-end EOS models. This useful tool is turned off by pressing the Display button or when you press the shutter release. If offers a wealth of exposure information, including: Shutter Speed, Aperture, Exposure compensation, ISO, Shooting mode, Flash Exposure comp., White balance mode, Drive mode, Picture Style mode, Metering mode, AF mode, Battery level, Image quality mode, and Shots remaining/Self-timer countdown/Shots remaining during WB bracketing, etc.

This is also a shortcut menu that is accesses by pressing the Set button. You can then quickly change the desired value of these functions by navigating with the 4-way controller, then pressing the Set button again.

Live View and Video Capture

Live view mode allows you to use the T1i like a consumer point-n-shoot. To activate the AF system, you have to press the AE/AF Lock button. Once the camera has locked focus on your subject, the AF mark (rectangle in the center of the screen) will turn green. Pressing the DISPlay button on the back will control the amount of exposure information that is visible.

Live View menu options:

Live View shoot. - Enable or Disable
Grid display - Off, Grid 1, Grid 2
Metering timer - 4, 16, 30 seconds or 1, 10, 30 minutes
AF mode - Live mode, Face Detect mode, Quick mode

The T1i is the second digital SLR from Canon to offer a video capture mode; the first being the EOS 5D Mark II. You can shoot video at either 1920x1080 (1080p, 20fps), 1280x720 (720p, 30fps) or 640x480 (VGA, 30fps) resolution. Sound is also recorded, and the camera uses H.264 compression to help conserve memory card space. Movie files are saved as QuickTime .MOV format files.

Live View menu options:

Grid display - Off, Grid 1, Grid 2
Metering timer - 4, 16, 30 seconds or 1, 10, 30 minutes
Movie Rec. size - 1920x1080, 1280x720, 640x480
AF mode - Live mode, Face Detect mode, Quick mode
Sound recording - On or Off

Camera Menus

To access the T1i's main menu system just press the MENU button. You use the 4-way controller to navigate the menus.

Record Menu

When you select the camera icon from the menu and move the 4-way controller down you can access the Shooting menu items:

Quality:Large (Fine/Normal): 15M (4752x3168), Medium (Fine/Normal): 8M (3456x2304), Small (Fine/Normal): 3.7M (2352x1568), RAW+JPEG (Large/Fine): 15M (4752x3168), RAW: 15M (4752x3168)
Beep - Enable/disable 'button beep' sounds
Shoot w/o card - Allows or denies shutter release when no memory card is installed
Review time - Sets review time-out on LCD - 2 sec., 4 sec., 8 sec., Hold
Peripheral illumination correction - Enable or Disable, helps with light fall-off or darkening at the corners of your images when using certain lenses
Red-eye - Enable/disable redeye reduction flash mode
Flash Control - Choose whether the flash fires, Built-in flash function settings, External flash function settings, External flash custom function settings, etc.
Exposure Comp./AEB - Choose the EV compensation for AE Bracketing and Exposure compensation (-2 to +2EV in 1/3 or 1/2EV steps)
Metering mode - Select Evaluative, Partial, Spot or Center-weighted average
Custom WB - Set the custom white balance value using a stored image
WB SHIFT/BKT - Set white balance correction or the step increment for white balance bracketing
Color space - sRGB or Adobe RGB
Picture Style - Selects image effects; see next menu description.
Dust Delete Data - Takes an exposure (of a white object) to identify dust spots on the image sensor. The dust data are appended to subsequent images for post-processing removal by Canon's software.

Picture Style Menu

The Picture Style menu has two looks. The first is what you see when you select the Picture Style option in the Record Menu, and the second is the graphical display when you press 'Down' on the 4-way controller or choose it from the Shooting Information Display shortcut menu. They Both have the same options, listed below:

Standard: For vivid, sharp and crisp images
Portrait: For nice skin tones, slightly sharp and crisp
Landscape: For vivid blues and greens, very sharp and crisp images
Neutral: For natural colors and subdued images; no sharpening applied
Faithful: For colormetric adjustment of colors of subjects shot under a color temperature of 5200K; no sharpening applied
Monochrome: For Black and White images
User Def. 1-3: For user-defined Picture Styles
Detail set.: For changing parameters of the pre-defined and user-defined Picture Styles, activated by pressing the DISP. button

The numeric parameters (or N) shown for each style are from left to right Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation and Color Tone.

Metering, ISO, Drive, Autofocus, and White Balance Menu's

The Digital Rebel T1i's settings for ISO, Metering mode, AF mode, Drive mode and White balance are directly accessible by selecting these options from the Shooting Information Display shortcut menu, or by pressing the dedicated buttons (metering is accessed via the menus only) on the camera body.

Custom Functions

C. Fn I: Exposure - Exposure level increments: 1/3-stop or 1/2-stop
C. Fn I: Exposure - ISO expansion: On or Off
C. Fn I: Exposure - Flash sync. speed in Av mode: 1/200-1/60sec. Auto or 1/200sec. (fixed)
C. Fn II: Image - Long exp. noise reduction: : Off, Auto or On
C. Fn II: Image - High ISO speed noise reduct'n: Standard, Low, Strong, Disable
C. Fn II: Image - Highlight tone priority: Enable or Disable
C. Fn II: Image - Auto lighting optimizer: Standard, Low, Strong, Disable
C. Fn III: Auto focus/Drive - AF-assist beam firing<: Enable, Disable or Only external flash emits
C. Fn III: Auto focus/Drive - Mirror lockup: Disable or Enable
C. Fn IV: Operation/Others - Shutter/AE lock button: AF/AE lock, AE lock/AF, AF/AF lock (no AE lock) or AE/AF (no AE lock)
C. Fn IV: Operation/Others - Assign SET button: Quick Control screen, Image quality, Flash exposure comp., LCD Monitor On/Off, Menu display or Disabled
C. Fn IV: Operation/Others - LCD display when power ON: Display or Retain power OFF status
C. Fn IV: Operation/Others - Add original decision data: Off or On

Setup Menu

Auto power off - 30 secs., 1, 2, 4, 8, 15 minutes or Off
File numbering - Continuous, Auto reset, or Manual reset
Auto rotate - Enable auto rotation of portrait mode images in camera, on computer or both
Format - Format the CF card
LCD auto off - Enable or Disable
Screen color - Choose from 4 color menu choices
LCD brightness - LCD back light intensity, 7 levels
Date / Time - Set date and time
Language - Sets the menu language
Video system - NTSC or PAL video output
Sensor cleaning - Choose when the Sensor is cleaned: Auto, Clean Now, Clean Manually
Live View function settings - Live View shoot.: Disable or Enable, Grid display: Off or On, Metering time: 4 sec. to 30 min., AF mode: Live mode, Face Detect, Quick mode
Flash control - Flash firing, Built-in flash func. setting, External flash func. setting, External flash C. Fn setting, Clear ext. flash C. Fn set.
Custom Functions (C. Fn) - See menu above
Clear settings - Clear all camera or Custom Function settings
Firmware Ver. - Display camera firmware rev#, can be user-updated

My Menu

Register - For faster access, you can register up to 6 menus and Custom Function setting you change frequently
Sort - Change the order of your registered menus
Delete - Chose to delete a registered menu
Delete all item - Delete all registered menu items
Display from My Menu - Enable or Disable the My Menu tab to be shown first when you press the MENU button

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